2025 Faith and Land-Based Upstander Academy

Background

The Upstander Academy is an immersive learning experience for educators, museum professionals, national parks staff, faith leaders, and community members who seek a deeper understanding of the history and contemporary reality of the Original peoples of the place now called the United States. Our focus is on the northern Dawnland, otherwise known as New England.

The Upstander Academy was founded in 2016 by Upstander Project, in partnership with the University of Connecticut’s Dodd Research Center and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, in response to repeated teacher demand for a deeper dive into the Indigenous history of the Dawnland. With its predominantly Native faculty and a participatory, generative approach to learning and unlearning, the Upstander Academy has supported hundreds of educators to reflect deeply on the history of the land and the people who have lived here for thousands of years. Faculty are co-learners when not presenting. The Upstander Academy touches the mind, body, heart, and spirit of those who participate. While most academy participants  have been classroom teachers, school administrators, and museum educators, superintendents and rangers from the National Park Service, and faith and lay leaders have also attended the academy.

The history of the place now called Massachusetts, being deeply rooted in the genocide and attempted erasure of the Original peoples, will be at the center of our inquiry during the 2025 Faith and Land-Based Upstander Academy.

While the origin story of the United States is often narrated according to events that happened here, much of what we learn is referred to as “twistory” in Indian Country. Most of us do not know about the kidnappings, enslavement, banishment, indentured servitude, and forced removal of Native youth and children across four centuries. Most of us do not know that 80 colonial-era laws were passed in this region that terrorized the Original peoples -- children, women and men -- by placing a bounty on their scalps. Some who promulgated these laws worshiped in churches that still exist today. In the mid-1700s, in Portland, Maine, Reverend Thomas Smith of First Parish Church organized a scalp posse and profited from the rewards collected by his parishioners. Most of us do not know about fraudulent land deals that led to the dispossession and impoverishment of those who trace their presence here back thousands of years. Most of us do not know that descendants of the Original peoples in Massachusetts classrooms have been repeatedly told they are lying when they claim their heritage.

What does this mean for us today? At the Upstander Academy, participants learn this history from Native and non-Native faculty and have a chance to think together about strategies they can use to help their communities so we can all move forward together.

In 2023, Upstander Project was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a 13-day academy, which was a resounding success. The program took place in Massachusett homelands and in those of the Narragansett and Mashpee Wampanoag.

In 2024, in close consultation with Reverend Dan Smith, formerly senior minister of First Church Cambridge, and a core team of local faith and lay leaders, we hosted a five-day Upstander Academy in Cambridge, Massachusetts for twenty-five people who wanted to delve into the history of the land, its people, their survivance and the trauma that continues today. The academy was co-directed by Roger Paul and Mishy Lesser. Elizabeth Solomon of the Massachusett Tribe served as the core faculty. With support from the Charlotte Foundation and area churches, we learned about history and culture and practiced a somatically-informed approach to learning and unlearning the history of place and the importance of waterways.

In 2025, in collaboration with alumni from the 2024 Upstander Academy, Upstander Project will offer a three-day Faith and Land-Based Upstander Academy for local faith and community leaders. The true per person cost is $850. Participants who can contribute more will make it possible for others to attend.

The Upstander Academy is co-directed by Dr. Mishy Lesser and Roger Paul (Passamaquoddy/Wolastoq). Elizabeth Solomon (Massachusett Tribe) is lead faculty for the academy, which is staffed by Jarah Botello, Upstander Project’s learning program manager.